Syria

The dramatic scene reportedly unfolded last Saturday at the Munich Security Conference, after Graham heard Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan telling European allies that Trump is planning to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria by April 30.

Mention the word “Syria” in front of Lindsey Graham, and the South Carolina senator will instantly transform from a sycophantic defender of Donald Trump into a fire-breathing defender of American adventurism in the Middle East, unsparing in his contempt for the president’s isolationist impulses. He went full dragon energy in December after Trump abruptly announced that he was withdrawing nearly all U.S. troops from the war-torn region (“If [Barack] Obama had done this, all of us would be going nuts because it’s such a bad idea,” he told Mike Pence), and promised to tweet at Trump every time the president mentioned Syria (“I’m not letting this go”). Unfortunately, recent events have forced Graham to take more dramatic action to get the president’s attention, such as describing in detail to The Washington Post how he impressed upon Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan his fervent belief that withdrawing from Syria is “the dumbest f---ing idea” he’s ever heard.

The dramatic scene reportedly unfolded last Saturday at the Munich Security Conference, where several members of the U.S. congressional delegation privately confronted Shanahan about the administration’s plans. A day earlier, Graham told Breitbart, he had personally pitched Trump on establishing a Syria “safe zone” along the border with Turkey, which would allow a percentage of U.S. troops to remain in the region as a deterrent against ISIS, joining forces with European and Kurdish allies to monitor the area. Apparently he figured he’d made inroads with the president. But when he heard about Shanahan suggesting to European allies that Trump is preparing to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria, Graham exploded:

“Are you telling our allies that we are going to go to zero by April 30?” he asked Shanahan, according to Graham.

Graham then launched into a list of consequences he feared would result from a precipitous U.S. withdrawal from Syria without a follow-up plan: the Islamic State would return, Turkey would attack Kurdish forces, Iran would gain the advantage. Graham asked Shanahan if he disagreed with that analysis.

“That could very well happen,” Shanahan said.

“Well, if the policy is going to be that we are leaving by April 30, I am now your adversary, not your friend,” Graham told the acting Pentagon chief, according to Graham. (Several other lawmakers confirmed this exchange.)

After a “deer in the headlights” response, Shanahan reportedly pinned the dumb f---ing idea on his dumb boss. (Or, as the Post put it, “he failed to articulate a substantive response—other than to re-iterate these were Trump’s instructions.”) “Shanahan did not have a good meeting,” said Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. Fellow Democrat Bob Menendez fumed that the Trump administration was not listening to a bipartisan opposition. “[Shanahan] got a chorus of voices that basically said, ‘This is not going to work, there is a bipartisan resolve not to let this happen, and you need to send a message back to the president that there’s a combined, unified view this is not the way to go and he should change course,’” Menendez said. “[Shanahan] basically said he got the message.”

Should the Shanahan intervention move the administration’s needle on Syria, perhaps persuading Trump to join a coalition of the willing to establish a safe zone, Graham would like it known that he had something to do with it. “After Iraq, not only would this be a mistake, this would be almost an unpardonable sin, in the sense that you know what can happen. This can risk his whole presidency,” Graham told the Post, now offering Trump the carrot. “Now, if he adjusts his policies and he does what Obama didn’t do and he holds this together, he’ll be looked at as the guy who finally got it right.”